most import part of your game to improve scoring

I had an Idea that Hitting fairways and GIR would be very important. this last week I played three 9 hole rounds were I hit every fairway and 4 greens ( this from a 20 hc. However my scoring was not that impressive. average of three rounds 48.

This go me thinking  so I look up this

Joe Durant

Driving Distance 276.6 156th
Driving Accuracy Percentage 84.00% 1st
Greens in Regulation Percentage 72.22% 2nd
Strokes Gained – Putting -.755 182nd
Birdie Average 2.89 177th
Scoring Average 71.504 109th
Sand Save Percentage 44.44% 147th
Total Driving 1,998 190th
FedExCup Season Points 30 195th
Money Leaders $25,420 201st
Par Breakers 16.05% 184th
GIR Pct. – Fairway Bunker .0% 191st

Jordan Speath

So it looks like it is better to be very good a putting good ate everything else.

no sorry that was 4 greens/ round

I did three put about 50% of these. Not use to having so many long first putts.In past used to chipping from very close

It looks like putting and chipping are the culprit.  I'd work on those.

Its not the most important part of the game, and its not what separates the pros, but you've can't 3 putt 13-14 times over 27 holes and expect to break 90.

Unless I'm still misunderstanding, if you 3-putted 50% of the greens that you hit in regulation you only lost 6 strokes due to relatively poor putting. The remaining 30 odd strokes lost still had to have been the result of poor results from your full swing....many such that you didn't even get on the green within a stroke of regulation because you lost 30 strokes on the 15 holes that you didn't hit in regulation, but presumably also didn't 3-putt. I'm sticking with full swing as your biggest opportunity. That's NOT to say that some lag putting practice wouldn't be on the agenda too, though! ;-)

although I hit all the fairways I was hitting it pretty short so had long clubs into most greens the greens I hit were mostly the par 3 and 5s. . I did hit several very bad Hybrids that that but me into sand or desert. So lost many strokes there. to many triples and worse. .

So I think I need to get some distance back on T shots and and improve long irons Hybrids.

Hitting GIR is very important. Hitting fairways, less so. Sure, it's more desirable than, say, being O.B. or in a hazard. But there are three holes on my home course where I'd rather be in the first-cut on the left than the right fairway, and my home course isn't unique in that regard. I'd also rather be 20 yards closer to the green, and in the rough, than further back and in the fairway on almost every hole. [quote name="VegasRenegade" url="/t/81390/most-import-part-of-your-game-to-improve-scoring#post_1129448"]So it looks like it is better to be very good a putting good ate everything else. [/quote] Sure, if you're playing mini golf. But on the big course? Not really, no. There aren't that many opportunities to lower your handicap via putting.

It's easier to shore up a poor short game than it is to significantly increase your GIR numbers.  The cold truth is that it's easier with practice getting chips and pitches to 1-putt range than it is to hit and hold greens from 150-200 yards out.

There are plenty of stats out that that indicated GIR % of tour players versus 20 handicappers.  Those of us between 15-20 hdcp understand this completely.  In an 18-hole round, we might hit 3-4 greens.  Accepting a low GIR % as fact means you better get your strokes back somewhere.  Short game is the best place to sharpen up the game and keep the score respectable until you CAN increase your GIR numbers.

dave

+1.   Short game is a low hanging fruit which (IMO) the OP can quickly improve score by 3 - 5 strokes at the least.   E.g, if OP can reduce his putting 27 times per round to 18 (what a typical bogey golfer does) per round, that's 9 strokes he is gaining and can lower his HI to 12 - 13 in a relatively short time.   I have the opposite problem of having a good short game (not much I can improve to reduce my HI drasticially) and poor ball striking/long game (room to improve).

Depends on what you mean by 1-putt range. For example, tour players chipping or pitching from 10-20 yards from the hole can get the ball to within 5-7 feet. Obviously, amateurs would end up quite a bit further out than that. Even if you could chip to that distance,  many double digit handicaps can hardly consider 5-7 feet 1-putt range.

Agree that GIR is not a great measure for amateurs, but there are other measurements (e.g. Near-GIR) that work better for us.

I also highly recommend you read Lowest Score Wins.

What, no microchip in the book telling you who's reading it? What are you some kind of technophobe? ;)

Each of us are a little different on what the most important part of our game is to scoring.  The easiest one to improve quickly in my mind is putting if its a weakness.  You should be able to shore up the putting to where you average 2 putt or less fairly simply relative to other parts of the game...

I would also look at your course management, especially around the greens.  I always look to the putter as first option off the green.  I can at least give myself a shot at a par putt every time if I use a putter off the green.  pitching and chipping brings in a larger "shot zone" into play.  I also like to play hybrid as next option.  Only after I can't reasonably play one of those two shots do I bring pitching and chipping, (mostly pitching) into play.

Play approaches to the center of the green, shading away from trouble like water and bunkers.  Until your a pretty low handicap player the goal is to get on the green and 2 putt.....oftentimes there are plenty of pin positions during a round pretty close to the middle anyways...but stay away from tucked pins...par is your friend and take double bogey out of play as much as possible.

Keep the ball in play off the Tee, sounds simple, but not always easy...but a lot of us regular guys lose a lot of shots from bad tee shots...Shade your tee shot away from OB, Water and nasty rough etc...

I signed up for a few lessons to try and improve my scoring as I can't seem to break 90. After asking for help with short game and bunkers I was asked what shots cause problems and it occurs to me that it's nearly always that shot to the green that ends up short and right.  Anyway, after a little work I am now working on getting the swing path on a better line and hopefully it helps. I have put in a lot of practice, on my own, to work on putting and around the green etc and aside from the odd 3-putt I usually take 2 or less. I find a lot of it in my head too as just when it's looking like a good round I seem to toss in a snowman to put me in check. I still have plans to get a couple of short game lessons, especially greenside bunkers, which can escalate my score rapidly.